ABSTRACT:
Background. Health research in LMICs often fails to translate into benefits to the local populations. Part of the reason is the absence of standards that foreground African communitarian values as reflected in the idea and practice of Ubuntu/Bihwir and the failure of ethical oversight to hold researchers and sponsors accountable to such standards. This workshop will explore how researchers should conceptualise post-study benefits as part of their professional responsibilities and how ethics committees can better exercise their responsibilities in ways that reflect African communitarian values to maximise population benefits from health research. Methods. The workshop will be participatory in design and start with a short scene-setting input, identifying the key issues for ethical oversight of health research. Participants will be given three vignettes to work through, illustrating the key decision-making points where ethical oversight could better address the risk-benefit analysis in ways that deliver population benefits explicitly and valorise a framework of African values. Outcomes. At the end of this workshop, participants should be better able to identify why and how population benefits should be integrated in protocol design and in the process of ethical oversight of health research, and to suggest ways to implement such ethical oversight to ensure African populations benefit. Participants will also be introduced to regional efforts to harmonise ethical oversight of health research in ways that advance justice and equity through African values, with the opportunity to participate in such efforts. Conclusion. A strengthened research ecosystem in Africa must incorporate African values in its ethical and regulatory environment to emphasise the collective benefits of health technologies for those who, by their participation, help make them possible.